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Westham Island Farm Pumpkin Patch Field Trip ~ Fine Art and Sciences M/W/F Class

 

Hello families, we have been transitioning into our class and it has been a very exciting month.  Already we have begun our “All about me” books, celebrated Thanksgiving and baked cranberry muffins.  Not to mention all the other activities the children have participated in such as making their lanterns for our upcoming lantern festival on October 19^th, celebrating friend’s birthdays, and exploring the many signs of the fall season.  To further extend our learning and curiosity of autumn, we find it fitting to tie in a visit to the pumpkin patch.

 

 

 

 

Our first field trip of the school year was a success.  Woohoo! We had beautiful sunny weather and our families to join us on this memorable day at the pumpkin farm.

 

The field trip began with a tour of the farm and it was led by Marcelle, our tour guide.  He took us to the barn, where the owls usually come to sleep during the day.  Although we weren’t able to see any at this time, we did get to examine Owl spits up.  It was very interesting to investigate what the owl ate.  We could tell that a mouse was enjoyed by the owl by the remains of  small bones and fur.

 

 

Then it was off to another barn where Marcelle talked about the fall harvest.  It was surprising to find out that Daya enjoys many vegetables and Cecily could name most of them.  The purple carrot stumped all of us because we thought the inside of the carrot would also be purple, but Marcelle proved us wrong by breaking it in half and revealing to the surprised children that it was actually orange inside.

 

 

Now, it was time to visit the farm animals.  All the children were very excited to discover what animals lived on this farm.  Chickens were first and one could even do a jumping trick with an apple then on to the dwarf goats.  Marcelle fed them hay and made them jump on to large rocks. We then saw Masey and her son, they are the cows at the farm and then last but not least, we met a donkey. I am pretty confident to say the children enjoyed the animal part of the tour the best.  I have a good feeling that we will be extending on farm animals in the coming weeks in our classroom.  We then got ready to get what we came for...our pumpkins!

   

The children were all very excited to pick out their own pumpkins and I saw many of them choosing carefully to call their own.  Jayce picked out a yellow pumpkin, colour was his determining factor and Cecily was taking her time to choose the most perfect one to take home. Others, like Asher, Thomas and Ronin seemed to have no problem finding their pumpkin of choice.

 

 

Field trips are fun and exciting for children,  they provide great opportunities for additional learning and outside experiences just by changing their environment.  It creates connections which then help build social, emotional and cognitive structures for them.  It is done by making memories which foster expansions of their learning by recounting what they saw, heard or experienced.  Which then leads to an opportunity to have a dialogue with our children.  You will be amazed at the details of what they remember, that many of us adults won't retain.  Field trips provide new experiences which leads to critical thinking for a child.

I hope everyone enjoyed themselves and got some great photo opportunities.

Until next time, Deanna